Parolee to be tried in 2 shootings, 1 fatal

San Diego  A parolee accused of committing two shootings late last year before he was shot by authorities trying to arrest him was ordered Friday to stand trial on murder and other charges.

Joseph Anthony Hill, 44, is accused of fatally wounding Sean Austin O’Toole on Dec. 29 during a confrontation at a Linda Vista duplex. O’Toole, 47, was hit in his chest and died at a hospital.

Hill is also charged in a shooting at a La Jolla motel later that night. A 39-year-old man was seen running from the motel before collapsing on the ground. He had been shot in his stomach.

San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill determined that enough evidence had been presented in a two-day hearing to justify Hill being tried on charges including murder, premeditated attempted murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

A co-defendant, Marla Caniglia, 35, is accused of being an accessory after the fact in O’Toole’s killing. She’s also charged with attempted murder, as an aider and abettor, in the incident at the motel. She was also ordered to stand trial.

According to witnesses' testimony, Hill and Caniglia went to O’Toole’s home on Drescher Street around 5 p.m. O’Toole’s girlfriend said she saw Hill shoot O’Toole as they stood near each other in the backyard.

She testified that she heard O’Toole say, “What are you going to do, shoot me?” Then she saw Hill fire a shot into the ground and then into her boyfriend’s chest.

She and others ran for the front door of the house and helped O’Toole into a car. They dropped him off at a nearby hospital. Hill and Caniglia fled in another vehicle.

Another witness who was at O’Toole’s home that evening testified he heard Hill say something to O’Toole about disrespecting a woman. The witness said O’Toole put up his hands as if preparing to fight, but Hill pulled out the gun.

Lawyers in the case were instructed to use only the first names of those two witnesses during the hearing. Deputy District Attorney Joe McLaughlin, a gang prosecutor, indicated in court that he had concerns about the witnesses’ safety if their names were made public.

No gang allegations have been filed in this case.

The second shooting, at the Biltmore Motel on La Jolla Boulevard, happened about three hours later. Investigators testified that Hill and Caniglia had gone there a day earlier to provide one of the occupants $200 worth of methamphetamine to sell. Instead of selling the meth, they said, the man used it.

The next day, Hill forced open the motel room door and fired a single shot at close range, seriously wounding the victim, the prosecutor said.

Investigators identified Hill as the gunman in the first shooting. When members of the Fugitive Task Force tried to arrest him in Point Loma the morning of Dec. 30, he tried to escape in a Ford Mustang.

Five officers opened fire when the car hit a U.S. Marshals Service deputy, who was part of the task force, authorities said.

The Mustang crashed on Catalina Boulevard near Coronado Avenue. Hill was pulled from the driver’s seat and taken to a hospital. A firearm was found next to the car.

Hill’s lawyer, Stewart Dadmun, argued that whoever shot the man at the motel was guilty of assault with a deadly weapon, not attempted murder. That victim did not identify the shooter or cooperate with investigators.